BALTIMORE — Tonight, a growing push across the country to declare racism a public health crisis.
Several states and cities have either passed or are considering passing resolutions to address racial inequalities as a result of systemic racism.
That includes Baltimore.
“There are racial disparities across every metric of health and throughout the united states the currency if inequality is years of life."
Former Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen testified before a congressional subcommittee Thursday, calling on congress to address racial disparities that are now in the spotlight because of the coronavirus.
"Children born today can expect to live 20 years more or less depending on where they are born and the color of their skin."
The pandemic, along with nationwide protests demanding for police reform after the death of George Floyd has brought inequalities and systemic racism to the forefront.
A number of states and cities across the country most recently being Wisconsin and Cleveland are now declaring racism a public health issue.
Baltimore passed a resolution back in April doing the same and the author of it, Councilman Robert Stokes is hoping to make it law.
Councilman Stokes says he wants to create a commission to develop a strategy to address disparities, he says it’s time to do this now before it’s put on the back burner.
"If we don’t do that, we are still going to have underlying issues in this city where people are murdering each other because they are in survival mode, they got to eat and take care of the basic needs to take care of their household."
